In this passage Achebe introduces us to Mr. Brown and a stereotypical white colonialist, Reverend Smith. Mr. Brown is not ignorant and over-zealous like Reverend Smith. With reference to their names, Mr. Brown sees more than just black and white. There is no good or evil. He is able to understand Ibo culture and the differences between their religions, without branding one as right or wrong. On the other hand Reverend Smith does see the world in black and white and will not accept any other religion, other than his own. It is important that Achebe does not stereotype the western society because this would make the African society just as ignorant as those who think that Africans are savages.
Mr. Smith has a very distorted understanding of Christianity and the actions of Jesus Christ. He believes “narrow is the way and few the numbers.” He only wants people worthy of God to fill his holy temple and even “within a few weeks of his arrival in Umuofia he suspended a young woman from the church for pouring new wine into old bottles.” He did this because he was “greatly distressed by the ignorance which many of his flock showed.” This tells us that Mr. Smith is not willing to accept any other customs or traditions other than those in the bible. In the bible Jesus Christ used a chord whip to, drive out livestock, scatter coins of money changers and to turn over the tables of people selling doves. He did this because he took offense, to the people that were using the temple of worship to make a profit. Yet, just like Mr. Brown, Jesus Christ appealed to outsiders and accepted them. In this passage the narrator mocks Reverend Smith at how he misinterprets the bible, and how he uses his misinterpretation to justify his actions. However, the narrator realizes that Mr. Smith is not to be dealt light-heartedly as he could make a dramatic change in Ibo culture because of his strong misconstrued views of Christianity.
Although Reverend Smith is very ignorant to Ibo culture and custom, it does not make him a completely foolish man. The narrator makes Reverend Smith’s character a bit comic, yet he is not innocuous. This is because it is his behavior and narrow views that cause such conflict and change between the two cultures. This can be seen in the line “there was a saying in Umuofia that as a man danced so the drums were beaten for him. Mr. Smith danced a furious step and so the drums went mad.” This line foreshadows that the situation in Umuofia is about to spin out of control and a great confrontation between the cultures is near. It portrays how Reverend Smith should not be undermined because, as he begins dances more furiously the more harmful he becomes to the Ibo culture. This is ironic because such an ignorant and “foolish man” can make such a dramatic difference in this culture and even the world.
In this extract Enoch is an over-zealous convert to the Christian church in Umuofia. Mr. Brown was able to control and restrain the fanatic converts. However, they “flourished in full favor” under Reverend Smith. The villagers called Enoch “the outsider who wept louder than the bereaved.” It appeared that he had “an excessive energy bottled up inside of his small body that he was always erupting in quarrels and fights.” Reverend Smith encourages Enoch indirectly to commit “one of the greatest crimes a man could commit”, which is unmasking an egwugwu in public. This horrendous crime initiated the great conflict between the clan and the church, which had been gathering since Mr. Brown left. To the Ibo culture, ancestors are very sacred and should be treated with great respect. Yet men like Reverend Smith and Enoch desecrate their traditions, which would eventually pull them apart. This ultimately will cause things to ‘fall apart’ in Umuofia, which links to the title of the Novel. Enoch who was lead by Reverend Smith made the “the very soul of the tribe weep for a great evil that was coming-its own death.” “Its own death,” insinuates that the tribe will eventually fall apart and no longer exist because the white men are slowly destroying the Ibo people and their culture, which holds them together.
Achebe purposefully does not translate all the words in the novel such as; “ogbanje,” and “egwugwu.” The reason for this is because Achebe wants to illustrate how the Western society has falsely perceived African culture and people as savages. The words are too complex and too sophisticated to possibly be translated into English without losing its meaning.
This extract is an efficient illustration of the rising tension between Western and African societies in a certain time period. It provides detailed descriptions of different stereotypes of this era, as well as different characters. I am interested to know what happens next and how things really start to fall apart after the Enoch’s crime. Achebe portrays the African society and culture in a new and humane light.
